Arms wrapped around me and kisses peppered my face. I snapped out of it and found myself staring into Alissa’s bright blue teary eyes. My state of shock faded and my body became mine again. I wrapped my arms around a kneeling Alissa and lifted her so she sat on my lap. My first bone crushing hug belonged to her.
“It was you, all you, you saved him,” I said over her lips with my hands cupped on either side of her face before kissing her hard.
“I’d like to think that I had something to do with it also,” Doctor Messing said as he stood, his hand held out to me for a shake and I grasped it and pulled the guy in for a man hug.
“Thank you,” I said and smiled at him. I let Alissa stand up where Julie pulled her into a hug, her belly bulging out at her five months of pregnancy.
We were escorted out of Doctor Messing’s office with another set of directions on what we could now let Jasper do and what he should hold out on for a little while longer. Suffice it to say that he wasn’t a complete bubble boy but it wasn’t too far from the truth. Regardless, my boy was home and his health was improving every day.
The four of us stood in silence as we watched Jasper amuse himself with Tyler, his hospital buddy when Messing escorted us out of his office. He looked up and smiled at us. I took a knee and he got up and took a giant leap into my arms.
“Did Doctor Messing tell you?” Jasper asked without a hint of a slur. He’d done so well with his speech therapy, I couldn’t be more proud of him.
“He did, son,” I said before I kissed the top of his head a couple of times in quick succession. I ruffled his hair and released him so he could hug his mother and everyone else he pleased.
Alissa was the last one for his attentions but she certainly wasn’t the least. After a giant hug, he backed away, grabbed her face in his tiny hands and gave her a big juicy kiss on the lips. “Thank you for fixing me,” he said.
The look on her face was of absolute hilarity. Her eyes were bulged, her face had blushed to a beautiful surprised crimson and her mouth opened much like that of a fish out of water. Kissed speechless by a four-year-old—my four-year-old.
“I think the girls are in trouble,” she said as she stood and I wrapped an arm around her waist laughing at what had taken place.
“I think you might be right on that one,” I said, “and it seems that I need to have a talk with him again about whose woman you are.”
***
In a mood to celebrate, the five of us headed out for a family lunch. I called my parents and told them the fantastic news while en route to Jasper’s favorite restaurant: McDonald’s. Relief was an understatement for them when Dad had to hang up because Mom had gone into hysterics.
I sat with Julie and Todd as we watched Alissa and Jasper in the playhouse. He had demanded that she be the one to go in with him and when one of the workers tried to prevent her from going up the tubes and down the slides, he kept the advantage.
“My sick is gone,” he said and pointed to Alissa. “She fixed me and I’m not dying, she has to play.” The worker had no clue how to respond to the child’s statement and after some few seconds of Jasper standing with his chin held up high, his arms crossed over his chest and a tiny foot tapping the padded floor, the teenager let them both have their way.
I was unsure about how he got the whole bit about dying seeing as no one had told him but I suspected that my ever so observant four-year-old had picked up on the hushed exchanges and the grim aura that had surrounded us for the last little while, not to mention the way he felt through all of it. It saddened me that he had managed to pick up our negativity considering all we ever tried to do, when the outcome was unknown, was to stay happy, upbeat and positive, not to mention, make every day a special day for him.
After lunch, Alissa needed to head into the office to tend to a few things for a corporate event she was overseeing in the following week. I took the opportunity to whisk Jasper away with me and have a few hours on the town with him while Julie and Todd headed back home.
When all was done, I had everything I needed. Julie had agreed to Jasper staying around until after dinner, knowing that Alissa had promised to be back in time for us to eat together. It was time for us two guys to head home and get to work.
“I’m really going to need your help on this one, little man,” I said and looked back toward my son who was still bouncing around in his booster seat.
“Allie will love it right, Daddy?”
I hope so.
I knew that everything would end up being fine—perfect as a matter of fact. It always was.
“You know it, buddy.”
Chapter 35
I was upstairs, tending to some last minute details when I heard a car drive up the driveway.
It can’t be her.
One look out the window proved that it was. A look at my watch also proved that she was over an hour earlier than what she had previously mentioned. Without a backward glance, I ran downstairs and out the back door.
“Jasper, she’s here,” I said, “get to it.”
***
They rounded the side of the house, judging by the sound of their voices.
“You should see what Daddy got today,” Jasper said.
“Where is he?” she asked.
“He’s by the pond, getting ready.”
“Getting ready? Getting ready for what?”
“You’ll see,” he said as they drew closer.
And then they came into my direct line of sight.
I had hid behind the other side of the house, my heart pounding out of excitement—out of nervousness—in the race of my life or so it felt like it at the moment.
Jasper escorted her toward the pond like I had instructed him to. They made idle chit chat about his afternoon with me and then Jasper sprung it on her.
“Allie,” Jasper said.
“Yes, little man?” She swung his hand back and forth in hers.
“You remember what you said about wanting to be my mommy?” he asked.
I’ve never seen a head snap so quick it was almost comical. She swallowed hard, shock all too evident at where the conversation had headed. “What of it?”
“Will you be my mommy?” he asked.
“But you have one already, sweetie,” she said.
“I know,” Jasper said with such simplicity, “but Daddy asked me to ask you.”
“Ask me wh-” her mouth slammed shut and she stopped dead in her tracks and looked down at Jasper who was smiling up at her with that heart-stopping grin of his that could bring anyone to give him what he wanted. My heart melted at the sight. “You’ve always been mine, Jasper,” she said and knelt down and hugged him to her, kissing the top of his head before pulling away and standing up again. “Tell you what…my answer is still the same. Yes, I would be happier than happy if I got to be your second mommy. Yes, I love you. And yes, if Daddy ever wants to get married, the answer I gave you the last time we talked in that hospital bed hasn’t changed and will always be yes.”
After her heartfelt reassurance to Jasper, Alissa got up and they continued forward. She hadn’t realized that they had finally arrived at their destination until Jasper stopped their forward progress.
“Jasper, you do know that I love you and Daddy with all of my heart, right?” she asked and cupped one of his cheeks with her hand.
“I know that,” he said and pushed her back so she sat down on the bench.
“Now where’s your father? You said he was here,” she said.
With a quick jump to give her a hug and a kiss to her cheek, he backed up and ran toward me as I approached. I hadn’t been that far behind, only enough not to be detected but close enough to overhear their conversation.
Alissa turned to follow Jasper’s movements, still in search of her answer and gasped as I walked up to her like a man on a mission. Her eyes scanned me from top to bottom, her brows creasing as she was trying to dissect what the two of us were up to but I knew damn well that she had caught on. If not
in its entirety then at least she had an inkling of what was about to happen.
Jasper pulled on the bottom of my shirt and held out his hand to me as I came to a stop a few feet away from her. I nodded to Jasper as I dropped it in his hands. He skipped the few steps over to Alissa.
“This is for you,” he said and held out the box, bouncing on his haunches.
It was an identical-looking box as to the one that I had used only a month ago.
She looked up at me with skepticism. “This isn’t another key, is it?”
I laughed. “No, but before you look inside, there are a few things I need to say first.” I held out my hand to her.
I closed the gap between us and stood us toe-to-toe. Jasper was still bouncing around. I knew that if I didn’t do it soon, I would burst.
“Daddy wants to marry you! Daddy wants to marry you!” Jasper said and my head snapped in his direction but where I should have been ticked off of my ruined surprise, I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched him dance around us in enthusiasm.
I turned my attention back to the person that meant the world to me aside from my son. Her gaze was stuck to my face as if trying to read me like I was one of her favorite books. “Is this true?” she asked about Jasper’s outburst.
I took the box from her, looked down as I opened it, brought my gaze back to hers and pulled her into me by wrapping my free arm around her waist. “He didn’t lie,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while now and I don’t know why I waited so damn long. Alissa Hidgins, I was first taken by you with your words in writing and then your smile when we met in person. I-”
“Please say yes! Please say yes!” Jasper chanted and continued to dance around which made Allie look down at my son and giggle while I watched her face this time around.
“Son, this is twice I try to talk and you’ve managed to ruin my attempts,” I said and turned my words to Alissa. “I’m sorry, it should have been better. It should have been perfect. I sh-”
Alissa kissed me, halting all of my words. She pulled away but I could still feel her breath on my lips. She mouthed that ever so life-altering three letter word on my lips before pressing her lips back to mine while she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Really?” I asked and grinned as I pulled away and pressed our foreheads together. She nodded with that radiant smile of hers. “Oh, thank God!”
She laughed then smacked me. “As if you’d think I’d say no.”
I kissed her again before I let her go and backed away. “Let me at least do this right since Mister Ants-in-my-pants over there is a little over-excited today,” I said and assumed the position.
On bended knee, I took the ring out of its box and held it up to her between my thumb and index finger.
“I love you, Alissa Hidgins,” I said, “please tell me again and say that you’ll be my wife?”
“You bet I will,” she said and threw her giggling self down at me with a little too much force which caused us to topple over into the long grass. “I love you so much, Paxton Lowell.”
“I never doubted that for a single second.” I slid the ring on her left hand ring finger and kissed the top of it as we laid there gazing at each other. “I love you too.”
“Alissa sandwich!” Jasper said with much enthusiasm.
My son’s pile-driving antics caused us to laugh and Alissa to slide off of me so Jasper ended up wedged between the both of us.
We spent the next few minutes tickling Jasper into a fit of giggles that had grown contagious all around. I had been the first to get up and assist my beautiful new fiancée to her feet who which in turn assisted my son. I scooped him up from where he stood, wrapped my free arm around Alissa and walked back toward the house with her cuddled into my side. It may not have been the perfect proposal but in retrospect, it had been perfect for us.
***
Later that evening, I had gone to fetch us a drink while I left Alissa on the back patio swing by herself. Upon my return, something made me pause and observe her. She was calm, peaceful, but most of all, I saw the happiness radiate off of her as she tilted her face up to soak up the sun’s setting rays with her eyes shut.
One step and the creaking of the board below my feet ruined the magnificent image before me but it had been replaced by an even better one—that of the one of her with a smile I now knew she bestowed upon me alone.
Jasper was gone, the dishes were done. It was she and I and the calm of the countryside. As I watched the rays shimmer across the surface of the pond, I smiled at the memory of a day a few months before.
Leaning against my shoulder, Alissa looked up and eyed me. “What’s that smirk about?” she asked.
“I was just thinking about the time by the pond,” I said and watched as her blush manifested itself.
I ran the back of my hand over her cheek.
“That blush never gets old,” I said.
She laughed and said, “I’m glad because I don’t think it’ll be going away any time soon, it hasn’t yet.”
I grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her head toward mine, capturing her lips with my own as she melted into me. She pulled away giggling and then shot up to her feet. My brow arched and with one glimpse into her eyes, I knew the seductress was back.
She backed away with a smirk on her face and pushed her shorts down her legs and kicked them to the side.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I would say it’s pretty evident my dear husband-to-be,” she said with a husky laugh. I was stunned at her statement—husband-to-be. “Race you.”
She took off running. Her laughter filling the air as she pulled her shirt over her head and threw it to the side.
I shook my head at her retreating form.
Would I ever figure that woman out? It was probable that I wouldn’t.
Did I want to? Sure, but what would be the fun in that? I have to admit, I sure love chasing after those answers. I doubt that a lifetime with her would ever allow me to know everything that made that woman tick but I was damn well going to be trying to do just that.
My feet set themselves on a path up to where she had headed. I hadn’t run after her but I can guarantee you that I did walk at more than a leisurely pace.
“I’m highly disappointed in you,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest. “I guess there’s no more fun left in you now that you’re about to be a hitched man.”
I shed my t-shirt and dropped my shorts along with my underwear and smirked at her while she ogled my naked body.
“I’ll show you no more fun,” I said and rushed her as she stood on the edge of the dock.
I grabbed her by the waist, making her squeal and twirled us around until balance left us altogether and we tumbled into the water. We surfaced laughing like kids, my arms still around her as her heated skin created a contrast between us and the coolness of the water.
“I guess I was wrong,” she said and pecked me on the nose.
“You’re damn right, you are.”
My smile turned into a smirk as my hands snaked up and popped the clasp to her bra. I kissed her shoulder as I slid the garment off of her and chucked it onto the dock.
I grinned and said, “Your bottoms my beautiful soon-to-be wife.”
She laughed. “You’ll have to work for those,” she said and stayed right where she was.
***
As the candles surrounding us in the bedroom burned out, Alissa laid in my arms, cuddled and sated as was I. It was in this moment that my curiosity from earlier in the day had inched itself to the forefront of my mind.
“I never got to ask you what brought you home early,” I said and kissed the top of her head. I felt the slight tension in her body and it dissipated just as quickly as it had appeared. It made me crook my head in question as I looked down at her. “Is everything okay?”
She lifted her head and looked at me. Her bottom lip held hostage in her teeth again and I groaned which caused a soft chuckle from h
er.
“Everything is perfect,” she said.
I wasn’t convinced. “Then why do I get the feeling that you’re hiding something from me?”
She smiled shyly and said, “M-maybe because I am?”
Well that wasn’t the tone or the answer I was expecting but instead of bracing myself for something negative, the smile she offered with her answer brought forth an excited, almost impatient urgency for me to hear her answer.
“Well?” I asked and pulled her so she lay over me and then tilted her chin so her eyes stayed glued to mine.
“Well-” she said.
“Come out with it woman before I fuck it out of you,” I said and laughed. My free hand ran down the middle of her back until I reached that bottom of hers and palmed a cheek.
“You might want to do that when I’m done or leave me altogether,” she said and pulled her chin out of my hand and kissed the middle of my chest before laying her head on it.
“Now why would I leave you? You’re the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me besides Jasper,” I said and cradled her head, running my fingers through her silken hair. “I wouldn’t have asked you to marry me otherwise.”
“That’s good to know, because…” she said and then lifted her head to look up at me again, “I think I might be pregnant.”
My heart beat at a staccato pace.
Did she say what I think she just said?
“You’re what?” I asked a little above a mute whisper.
“I might be pregnant,” she repeated, then groaned and hid her face in my chest, my hand once again cradling her head in its spot as I stared at the ceiling in shock.
We stayed there, silence overcoming both of us for a few minutes and the oddest reaction took hold of me. I started to laugh a full out belly laugh.
She lifted her head and her eyes narrowed on me with a fuming gaze. This would be the second time she had gotten pissed off at me and even though I had never wanted her feeling that way, I couldn’t ignore the passion that surged through those eyes of hers despite her blatant irritation.
Once Written, Twice Shy (The Broken Men Chronicles) Page 23